Academic Integrity Policy
| AC-REG-POL-002 Academic Integrity Policy | |
|---|---|
| Department | Academic/Registrar |
| Approval Date | February 14, 2023 |
| Effective Date | September 5, 2023 |
Organizational Scope
The Policy applies to all full-time and part-time students enrolled in programs offered in The Michener Institute of Education at UHN (“Michener”).
Purpose
Students enrolled at Michener will be held to a high standard of academic integrity in all academic and learning matters. This policy defines academic integrity and provides guidelines on the procedure to be followed when a student has violated academic integrity.
Policy
Michener believes that the development of academic discipline and acceptable standards of academic integrity and honesty are important aspects of the learning process. Individual students must assume responsibility for the measure of discipline and academic integrity appropriate to their role as students in a health care profession. Students must act fairly and honestly in all aspects of course work and work integrated learning, and are responsible for upholding academic integrity.
Academic evaluation of students must accurately represent the knowledge and skills they have achieved. Any form of academic misconduct such as plagiarism, impersonation, and cheating undermine the quality of education and are considered serious offences.
A range of penalties may be applied based on the nature and severity of the academic offence. All academic offences will be documented, with records kept for a period of 1 year after the student has exited the program.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the portrayal, claiming, or use of another person’s work or ideas (sentence, thought, paragraph, intellectual property, data, drawings, or images) without specific reference. In the academic world this is considered to be theft. It is dishonest and irresponsible and will result in serious consequences. This applies to material from all sources – print, media, web, photos, graphs, and diagrams.
While assignments and tests are intended to assess a student’s personal knowledge of a subject, there are times when students need to use resources written by others. In the health professions, this often consists of research findings, ideas, and opinions. Proper referencing acknowledges ownership, shows respect for the work of others, allows the reader to locate the source of information, and demonstrates a student’s ability to research, digest, apply, and transfer knowledge.
In addition, all assignments must be the independent work of the student. Duplication of another student’s work is considered plagiarism. Group assignments are considered to be the personal work of the entire group members shared equally. If other sources are used, they must be carefully cited. The Learning Resource Collaboratory (LRC) offers referencing and writing help.
Tests and exams are intended to establish the knowledge level of the student in a particular subject. Tests and exams assess and evaluate knowledge required by the profession and cited in the course outline learning outcomes. Each student is expected to respond independently to all the questions. Copying from the papers of other students is prohibited. With the exception of open textbook exams, copying from notes or textbooks brought into the test/exam room is not permitted.
Impersonation
Impersonation is the act of representing or being represented by another person during any evaluation, examination, or assignment and includes working as a group or team in online activities that are intended to be completed individually.
Cheating
Cheating is an attempt to gain or provide an inappropriate advantage in an academic evaluation. Examples of cheating are:
- Obtaining a copy of an examination before it is officially available,
- Copying another person’s answer to an examination question during the examination,
- Consulting an unauthorized source during an examination,
- Bringing an unauthorized source specific to the subject into an evaluation, or
- Providing knowledge of materials on examinations to others (such as to those writing in a second or separate session such as an accommodation session).
Penalties
Violation of academic integrity is a serious offence. Depending upon extent, circumstances, and previous record, violation of academic integrity will result in one or more of the penalties listed below:
- Loss of marks
- Letter of warning
- Probation
- Suspension
- Expulsion from program
The above penalties may be accompanied by such consequences as transcript notation or inclusion of documentation of the violation as part of the student’s permanent record.
